Law, Power, and Justice

Tuesday 2 May 2023

Vox “Today Explained” Podcast: Supreme Court

Propublica didn’t start out investigating Clarence Thomas.  They were investigating travel and happened on the Crowe connection with Clarence Thomas.  Thomas had taken Crowe’s private plane and flown to Connecticut for only a few hours.  Talking to charter companies, they said that renting a jet for a comparable flight would cost somewhere like $70,000.

Crowe is very involved in pro0business conservative politics.  He’s a major republican donor.  Also, he has given millions to ideological efforts to move the judiciary to the right.  He sits on the board of major conservative think tanks. 

Joshua Kaplan was one of three reporters who broke the initial story of the Thomas corruption.  

2019, Thomas flew to Indonesia and spent nine days island hopping on Crowe’s super yacht complete with private chefs. 

The first direct financial transaction was an undisclosed financial transaction, involved the house Thomas mother lived in.  Money directly flowed from Crowe into Thomas’ pocket.

There are few rules about what kind of gifts Supreme Court Judges can receive.  Thomas appears to have broken the law for not disclosing any of these gifts. 

Then, after these stories broke, there were other stories, like that of Neil Gorsuch who struggled to sell a property and then nine days after being confirmed to the Supreme Court suddenly sold it to the head of a top law firm.

Then, there was the wife of Chief Justice Roberts who made $10 million placing lawyers with law firms.  Some of them have had had business before the court.

There is no oversight of the court. 

Corporate Media

This is one of those nights when I think I am going to lose my mind.  First, there was Nicolle Wallace weeping on national television over the fact that Tim Russert died and his son wrote a book.  You would think that nobody’s parent ever died in the history of the world.  First, I have never understood why people find it necessary to winge on and on about Russert.  I am sure he was a nice guy, but please, all this adoration?  I don’t get it.  Second, Luke Russert is not the only person who has ever experienced grief or hardship.  Why does his grief merit an entire segment on nightly corporate news?  Third, Nicolle Wallace was making it perfectly clear to her audience last night that she was crying over gun deaths.  We do not need news anchors weeping.  We need a media that will stand up for what is right, cover something beside the latest episode in the “Trump’s Legal Trouble” saga. 

Alright.  Then, there’s Ari Melber.  Melber’s guests are talking about how the brinksmanship over the debt limit is “so yesterday.”  The base seems to have moved on to fights with Disney, etc.  I have no idea how this conclusion was reached by Chai Komanduri, a guest on Melber’s show.  I really think that establishment Washington is incapable of realizing that the REALLY CRAZY faction of the Republican party actually wants to throw the world into economic chaos.  People like Steve Bannon want there to be an economic catastrophe so they can establish a religious fascist state in the ruins.

Establishment Democrats refuse to fight, refuse to look at the reality of the political situation in this country.  The Republicans are not going to be defeated in some kind of nice, rules-based debating session.  They want to tear down society, to tear it apart.  It seems like they will have to do it before establishment Washington will realize the truth.  But, we will be the losers.